You don’t give a funeral speech until there’s a dead body. And while Donewaiting’s going to be pulling the plug this weekend, I wasn’t born yesterday. I remember Kiss going on their 141-date Farewell Tour in 2000/2001. And how did that go for ya, Kiss? I wrote a story for MELT Magazine in 2010 about The Scorpions final tour (yes, the band was still touring in 2012). Donewaiting’s not done, don’t let Duffy fool you. Maybe it’s time for a re-tool. Maybe it’s time for some fresh blood. Maybe it’s time to take a breather. But while there are bands like The Smiths that turn down all sorts of offers, you never say never to a reunion and I’ll bet you’ll see Donewaiting rise from the ashes – maybe not in 2013 or 2014. But, if Duffy doesn’t renew the URL, I’ll swoop in and snag it and put together my own scab version of Donewaiting someday, just like Axl and the band he continues to call Guns N’ Roses.

I suppose I should say thanks to Duffy and the Donewaiting family for the 10 years of letting me write about ’80s hair metal and The Damnwells. And thanks to those of you (hi Lisa Ragland!) who have come up to me in clubs around town and said, “Hey, aren’t you the guy who writes for Donewaiting?” It’s been fun and, hell, throwing the Donewaiting name around has gotten me into shows, gotten me some interviews, etc., that I probably wouldn’t have gotten on my own.Continue reading →

Still amazed that Kelley Deal performed in an alley this past fall as part of the Independents’ Day Festival. For the past year or so, Kelley’s been working with Mike Montgomery (Ampline) under the name R. Ring though one suspects that with an upcoming Breeders reunion tour (thus far limited to a handful of European dates), R. Ring performances might become a bit rarer.

This is a pretty big event for Kobo and it’s being treated as such – there will be 70 seats available in the main performance room with limited standing room only space available for those who don’t get seats.

Your last chance at securing pre-sale tickets are by swinging by Kobo Tuesday evening from 6:30 to midnight. After that, you’ll have to take your chance at the door on Thursday night. Capacity will be capped at 100, so you snooze, you lose.

Though a coincidence – a tour date in Columbus a day after their 7th album is released – you can pretend like Mice Parade’s show at The Tree Bar on Wednesday night is a CD release party.

Candela‘s a great late-night listen – layers of sounds filling each song leading some to label Mice Parade as a shoegazer band. The hypnotic sway of the first single, “This River Has a Tide”, doesn’t prove contrary to this idea.

Tuesday night, San Francisco’s Castle brings their thrashy doom metal to Kobo. A couple of Columbus’s finest metal bands – Sleepers Awake and Ride to Ruin – share the bill. Doors at 8, show at 9. $7 will get you in the door.

This is a great snapshot of the 30-day fall tour Phil Cogley (The Saturday Giant) went on a few months ago. Admittedly, as the 17-minute clip came to an end, I was hoping to find out that this was just a trailer for a much longer film. Sadly, it’s not. But it’s an entertaining video and one that flies by.

I had the chance to ask Phil about the tour and the documentary. Check it out over at ColumbusCalling.com.

The Columbus Alive made this show its Staff Pick of the week and says the “post-punk combo that taps common record nerd sweet spots — Mission of Burma, Devo, Sonic Youth, any band with a motorik pulse — with uncommon grace.”

Cover is $5. Connections, Psychedelic Horseshit, and WV White round out the lineup at The Summit.

Now that we’re all done boo-hooing over the shocking announcement that Donewaiting.com is ceasing digital production in February, let’s get to matters at hand – the Anyway Records 20th Anniversary show taking place Friday and Saturday night at Ace of Cups. We’ve covered our bases posting the lineups for these two shows but I thought I’d share this photo, a cover of the December ’93 issue (“The Final Issue?”) of The Columbus Edge, featuring two of Friday night’s performers – The New Bomb Turks and Ron House of Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments.

I don’t think there’s that much to the story behind the cover. I’m pretty sure I pitched the idea of having The New Bomb Turks sit on a mall Santa’s lap and either Tony Barnett or Jerry Dannemiller put their own twist on it – finding (renting?) a Santa suit, putting Ron House in it, and taking a photo of the Turks sitting on Ron’s lap in the Stache’s bathroom.

Listen, I know this benefit show at The Bluestone is for a good cause – a portion of the proceeds from the concert will benefit Project: Zero Ohio, a local HIV/AIDS non-profit that strives to assure that local HIV/AIDS patients receive the medical care that they need – and I’m happy to do my part to help out, but the real draw is the amazing night of music show organizers have put together.

Headlining is Mr. Fahrenheit & The Loverboys, the Queen tribute band who will be celebrating the life of Freddie Mercury (who passed away 21 years ago) by performing all the Queen hits people know and love. But the tribute fun doesn’t end there – =Van Haken=, the city’s best (and only?) David Lee Roth-era Van Halen tribute band will be making us all forget that the real band canceled their Columbus date earlier this year.

The full schedule of events can be found after the jump – bands/set times/etc.Continue reading →